Education
Fayette schools will join opioid litigation, citing ‘children touched by this scourge’
Trying to recoup “significant damages” to Lexington’s schools from the opioid epidemic, the Fayette school board on Monday voted to join other school districts in filing a claim in the bankruptcy proceeding for Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of oxycontin.
“Over the past two decades, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of students whose families have been ravaged by addiction,” Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Manny Caulk said in a news release. “As champions for children, our school district has adapted to meet the needs of children touched by this scourge, but those efforts have come at a cost.”
Ron Johnson, a Louisville attorney representing the school district, told the Herald-Leader Tuesday that Fayette schools will be filing an action in the bankruptcy proceeding for the largest manufacturer of opioids, Purdue Pharma, pending in New York.
He said the city of Chicago and East Aurora, Illinois public schools have already done so. In Kentucky, Larue and Bullitt schools have also voted to file such claims in the bankruptcy.
Purdue Pharma has denied any wrongdoing, according to media reports.
Following the bankruptcy, Johnson said Fayette schools may elect to file a lawsuit in the multi-district litigation pending in federal court in Cleveland, which is against all major manufacturers, distributors, and retail sellers of opioids, including McKesson, Amerisource-Bergen, Cardinal Health, Walgreens, CVS, Insys, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Teva, and Johnson&Johnson.
Johnson said the amount of damages the school district is seeking to recoup, including the cost for special education for children born addicted to opioids has not been determined.
A resolution from Fayette board members said the school district is among those in the nation that have suffered significant damages as a result of the national opioid epidemic, including expenditures of public funds to address the impact on students, teachers, other staff, and taxpayers.
“As opioids became the most widely distributed drugs in U.S. history, there have been catastrophic, widespread consequences including addiction, overdoses, death and developmental disabilities in children,” the news release said.
The school district won’t spend money to participate in the litigation, “other than the personnel time necessary to gather data necessary to cooperate with the attorneys,” according to the district’s news release.
Law firms in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Jacksonville, Fla. and Louisville will be representing Fayette schools in the litigation, the resolution said.
The Fayette school board in December also voted to file a lawsuit against Juul and other e-cigarette manufacturers for causing a youth vaping epidemic leading to addiction and health issues for Lexington students.
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